How Travelling Makes You Happy

Sometimes the simplest question is the hardest to answer. Try this one: why do you like travelling? Some people would answer, “Well, I like going places”. Some other would answer, “I like taking photos of many beautiful places”. Other people would probably answer, “I… don’t know, I just travel I guess.”

From all of these answers, I think we all come to one big answer of why we like travelling: because travelling makes us happy. Yes, try to contemplate it: travelling does make you happy. That is why you always try to skip works and spend money to go hiking to the mountain. That is what makes you want to drive miles and miles away from the nearest city just to see the flow of a river. That is all simply because travelling makes you happy.

How does travelling make you happy? I am trying to summarise several things that may be the reasons of why you enjoy travelling and why you feel that travelling makes you happy.

You Trust Other People

There is almost zero probability that you go to some places without anyone knowing. At least you will need a help from local guides, or you will ask a driver that is passing by to get a ride to your destination place. The thing is, travelling makes you relied on other people. And, by relying on other people, you are actually and automatically trusting them. Even when you are facing the worst situation, being with other people and eventually trusting them—no matter how they are a stranger to you—makes you feel that the world is just a really beautiful place where good people—really good people—are living and helping each other. Your faith in goodness is just restored.

Infectious Happiness

When you go to new places, chances are you will meet local people. You will know at least one or two persons of them and then you will learn about them. There you will find that happiness is actually infectious. When you see these people, with a totally different life they live everyday, you see courage and spirit in them. You see happiness within their life, no matter how you see them way more traditional or simpler than you are. And that is where you find your happiness. Seeing other people feel happy about their lives will make you feel happy about yours, too. And that is the thing that you will find when travelling.

Distance from Your Beloved Ones

When you travel, you will likely spend more than a day without your beloved people. You will live probably by your own, with some other people that you barely know, just miles and miles away from your spouse, your family, your wife or husband, or your parents. This distance is what makes you feel that they are so precious in your life. This feeling is what makes you seize the day you usually spend with them. That brings you happiness and gratitude to have such a set of loving people around you.